[4][5] Škoda automobiles are sold in over 100 countries, and in 2018, total global sales reached 1.25 million units, an increase of 4.4% from the previous year.

Klement returned his bicycle to the manufacturers, Seidel and Naumann, with a letter, in Czech, asking them to carry out repairs, only to receive a reply, in German: "If you want us to answer you, we insist that you convey your message in a language we understand.

"[14] Not satisfied with the reply and realizing the business potential, Klement, despite having no technical experience, decided to start a bicycle repair shop, which he and Václav Laurin opened in 1896 in Mladá Boleslav.

To design a safer machine with its structure around the engine, the pair wrote to German ignition specialist Robert Bosch for advice on a different electromagnetic system.

The company, with an area of 7,800 square metres (0.78 ha), had a workforce of 320 and used 170 special machine tools, power-driven by 100 horsepower (75 kW) of steam power.

In 1932 ASAP-Škoda in Mladá Boleslav Bohemia produced a type Škoda 932 prototype of a streamlined 4-seater two-door car with a rear air-cooled flat-four engine designed by Karel Hrdlička and Vsevold Korolkov.

[19] After a decline caused by the economic depression, Škoda introduced a new line of cars in the 1930s, which significantly differed from its previous products.

A new design of chassis with backbone tube and all-around independent suspension was developed under the leadership of chief engineer Vladimír Matouš and modelled on the one first introduced by Hans Ledwinka in Tatra.

The final massive air raid took place on 25 April 1945, and resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Škoda armament works and about 1,000 dead or injured.

[22] When, by July 1945, the Mladá Boleslav factory had been reconstructed, production of Škoda's first post-World War II car, the 1101 series, began.

[24] Škoda’s American dealerships, concentrated on the West Coast and in the Northeast, quickly encountered buyer resistance due to the Cold War political climate in ways that comparable Western European cars did not.

In the late 1980s, Škoda (then named Automobilové závody, národní podnik or abbreviated AZNP) was still manufacturing cars that conceptually dated back to the 1960s, and in Western Europe at least - were aimed squarely at the budget end of the market.

Rear-engined models such as the Škoda 105/120 (Estelle) and Rapid sold steadily and performed well against more modern makes in races such as the RAC Rally in the 1970s and 1980s.

[25] To drivers in the UK, the vehicles which chugged off Škoda's production line in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, embodied all that was wrong with the planned economies of the Soviet satellite states.

The company must have been doing something right.In 1987, the Favorit was introduced, and was one of a trio of compact front-wheel drive hatchbacks from the three main Eastern Bloc manufacturers around that time, the others being VAZ's Lada Samara and Zastava's Yugo Sana.

Until 1990, Škoda was still making its outdated range of rear-engined small family cars, although it had started production of the Favorit front-wheel drive hatchback in 1987 as an eventual replacement.

[5] Volkswagen offered to continue Favorit production and preserve the Škoda brand, including retention of research and development.

The government inclined on the Renault side, while the Škoda trade union preferred VW, because it offered significantly larger potential for development of the company.

[28] On 30 May 2000, Volkswagen AG bought the remaining 30% of the company, thus making Škoda Auto a wholly owned subsidiary of the group.

The 1994 model Felicia was effectively a reskin of the Favorit, but quality and equipment improvements helped, and in the Czech Republic, the car was perceived as good value for money and became popular.

Volkswagen AG chairman Ferdinand Piëch personally chose Dirk van Braeckel as head of design, and the subsequent Octavia and Fabia models made their way to the demanding European Union markets.

The perception of Škoda in Western Europe has completely changed since the takeover by VW,[29] in stark comparison with the reputation of the cars throughout the 1980s described by some as "the laughing stock" of the automotive world.

Škoda presented the MissionL design study at the IAA in Frankfurt am Main in September, which was to become the basis of the company's forthcoming compact model the European Rapid.In the same year, the company started production of the new Rapid model in Pune, India (October 2011), and launched the Škoda Citigo at Volkswagen's Bratislava plant (November 2011).

[38] In 2012, Škoda, introduced an emission-free (on the street) fleet of Octavia Green E Line e-cars on Czech roads to be used by external partners.

In 2015, new Škoda chairman Bernhard Maier said that the Volkswagen Group "is working on a modular, new electric platform and we are in the team", and "there is no alternative to electrification.

[47] At Auto Shanghai in 2017, Škoda displayed its Vision E concept for an all-electric 300-bhp coupé-SUV,[48] with level 3 autonomy capability and 500 kilometres (310 mi) range.

[49] It is based on the VW MEB platform and Škoda Auto will also manufacture electric-vehicle batteries for the Volkswagen Group in its facility in the Czech Republic.

Former works Ford and Citroen driver François Duval also drove a Fabia WRC in 2006 for the privateer First Motorsport team, achieving a sixth-place finish in Catalunya.

The arrow represents speed, the wings progress and freedom, the eye precision and the circle unity, completeness, world and harmony.

[77][78] The story goes that, on his travels through the US, Emil Škoda had once been so taken with a Native American's feathered headdress that he had returned to Plzeň with a relief image which inspired the logo.